WORCESTER 
For the past four months, Amina Mohamed and her husband, Abdikabdir, and their nine children have been living in cramped quarters in two one-bedroom units at the Suburban Extended Stay motel, part of Quality Inn and Suites on Oriole Drive.

Mr. Mohamed leaves at 8 o'clock each morning to drive more than 65 miles to Lynn, where the family once lived and he works in a factory, cutting meat, picking up trash and performing other odd jobs.

The seven older children, ages 7 to 16, go to public schools each day, while Mrs. Mohamed, 39, and her 2-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter are pretty much confined to their motel room where they pass the time mostly by sleeping.

After dinner, which is prepared in a small kitchenette, homework and some video games and television, the children drift off to sleep, on two twin-size beds in the bedroom and on a couch and blankets on the floor in the living room. When Mr. Mohamed, 41, returns from work around midnight, he carries or walks the four older boys into the next room to sleep with him.

“I don't like living like this. I don't want to have to stay away from my kids in different hotel rooms,” Mrs. Mohamed said recently. “I would like to have a house that has an upstairs and five bedrooms with a yard so my kids can play. They're used to going outside to play. But now they have to stay in and play video games until we find a house.”

Mrs. Mohamed doesn't speak English. Her oldest child, 16-year-old Hawa, translated for her. The couple and three of their children came here from Somalia 10 years ago. In Lynn, they lived in a tiny, three-bedroom apartment and were facing eviction because of problems keeping up with the rent, so they were able to get help through the state's emergency housing assistance program.

Mrs. Mohamed's family is among 1,503 families in need, including 47 in Worcester County, who were living in motel rooms as of Feb. 12 because they didn't have anywhere else to live. While the numbers are high, especially at a monthly cost to taxpayers of about $3,000 per family, they have declined considerably over the past few months because of the Patrick-Murray administration's commitment to providing resources to stop the practice of placing needy families in motels by June 2014 and instead place them in permanent affordable housing.

In the past three months about 300 families have gotten a new lease on life after transitioning from motels or emergency shelters to a permanent home, many through a new state rental voucher system; and the two-year-old HomeBASE program, which provides up to $4,000 to help a family exit a motel or shelter. The Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program provides up to $4,000 in a 12-month period to prevent an extremely low-income family from becoming homeless.

Aaron Gornstein, undersecretary for the Department of Housing and Community Development, said placing families in motels for more than a few nights is not a healthy environment for children and not a good use of taxpayer money. This year alone $45 million is set aside to pay for motel rooms for needy families. He said that he is optimistic that the administration will reach its goal of no longer placing families in motels.

“We are on track to accomplish that. We've made significant gains in the past few months. We're very pleased with the progress we're making so far,” he said in a recent telephone interview.

Massachusetts has been placing homeless families in motels when emergency shelters are full since the 1980s, but the number reached its highest of about 1,800 during the last economic downturn.

Matthew Sheaff, DHCD's communications director, said the average stay in a motel is about eight months, though some stay a lot less time or longer. The rule is to place a family within 20 miles of their home, but there are exceptions. The Mohamed family from Lynn was placed at the Suburban Extended Stay because at the time it was the only place available that could accommodate a family of that size. If something closer becomes available they will be given the option to transfer, he said.

Grace K. Carmark, executive director of Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, who has worked on homelessness issues since the early 1980s, said more is being done now than ever to address the core problem. CMHA is one of the community partners of the DHCD that has staff to work closely with families in shelters and motels to find permanent affordable housing and income support.

She said unlike previous administrations that focused on adding emergency shelter beds, the current administration is putting more resources into preventing homelessness.

“Just think about the impact of losing your home and kids living in motels. If we can just keep them housed, they'll do better in life as opposed to the disruption of homelessness,” said Ms. Carmark. “Having a quiet place to do your homework, having a kitchen table to eat around with the family unit is so much more cost-effective and humane.”

Budget resources to address housing for families in need have increased substantially in the past few years. This fiscal year, more than $264 million was appropriated, up from about $122 million five years ago. Gov. Deval L. Patrick on Friday signed into law a $43 million supplemental budget, to finish paying for shelter contracts for the remainder of the year and the HomeBASE program.

Included in the funding are millions of dollars to repair and bring back online about 200 vacant public housing units and money for the Housing Stabilization Fund to create or preserve housing for low-income families.

Steve Berg, vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said Massachusetts is doing an outstanding job to address homelessness compared to other states.

He said Massachusetts is one of only a few states that have right-to-shelter legislation. A lot of states, he said, do not put any local money toward the issue, choosing to only use federal funds.

“Massachusetts does put a lot of resources toward trying to get families back in housing, there's no doubt about that,” he said. He added that “Massachusetts does more than most.”

While many stakeholders are happy with the direction the state is going in terms of preventing and addressing homelessness, some say the narrowing of emergency assistance eligibility regulations is excluding some families.

In addition to the income limits, in order to get emergency shelter someone has to be without a home through certain circumstances, such as fire, natural disaster or escaping domestic violence. Or they must be facing eviction through no fault of their own or in a housing situation that exposes children to substantial health and safety risks.

Kelly Turley, director of Legislative Advocacy at the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said about 60 percent of families that are applying for emergency assistance each week are being denied, compared to 44 percent before the stricter guidelines. If a family stays in a place not meant for human habitation such as a car or a hospital emergency waiting room, they can re-apply, she said.

“I've been at the coalition for 10 years and this is the first time I've seen so many families in such dangerous situations and not be able to access shelter when they need it,” said Ms. Turley.

Nancy Allen-Scannell, director of policy and planning for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said she is seeing delayed housing assistance for young single mothers because of the new guidelines.

Also, most young single parents in need also don't have the education or skills to sustain the type of affordable housing provided by DHCD, she said.

In one case, she said, a 19-year-old single mother who tried to get emergency housing through DHCD was told to go back and live with her mother, despite the fact that the Department of Children and Families had taken her away from her mother as a juvenile and placed her in foster care. The teen and her child ended up sleeping on someone's couch for a couple of weeks. Ms. Allen-Scannell said when the young mother again applied for help from DHCD, she was told she would have to provide a letter from her former host saying she and her child could no longer sleep on the couch.

Mr. Gornstein, the DHCD undersecretary, said the new regulations were requested by the Legislature. He said when a family applies for emergency assistance and an intake worker believes there is a health and safety risk and no place for the family to go in the short term, a DCF social worker meets with the family within 24 hours to assess the situation.

If an applicant tells an intake worker they have no place to go and it's documented that they had to stay in a place like an emergency room, they will be eligible for help, he said.

“We try to avoid that if at all possible. We want to help a family before that unusual scenario happens,” said Mr. Gornstein. “If it does, we make sure they provide emergency shelter for them. Our goal is to work with families as early as possible and prevent them from going into a shelter at all.”